Traditional pointing devices have been designed for use on a horizontal desktop surface, with the user seated upright and not engaged in other activity. With personal computers now being used in living rooms for multimedia, and the multimedia and computing possibilities of game consoles such as Microsoft® Xbox 360™, traditional pointing devices are often not practical in many scenarios. For example, a traditional mouse does not allow a user to use it without a surface, nor to do so in a relaxed posture, yet this is often the desired case in a living room or media room environment.
Moreover, even with a desktop personal computer, users could benefit from off-desk navigation. For example, many users surf the web or read documents for long periods of time without the need to enter text on the keyboard. Many such users would like to navigate without having to stretch to reach a mousing surface; for example, it would be desirable to simply to lean back and read, yet be able to navigate news articles or long documents as necessary, without close proximity to a horizontal mousing surface.